THE DEFENDERS!

The Defenders were formed in 1969 by Doctor Strange in issue #183 of his own comic, Sub-Mariner #22, and The Incredible Hulk #126. Strange’s own series had been canceled, and Marvel tried to continue the life of the character in a team book. The next appearance of the team was in 1971, in Marvel Feature #1, and the book sold well enough that the team got their own book. The Defenders never got the respect of teams like The Avengers or Justice League, but they didn’t have to–the
title was more quirky than important, more mystical
than super.
But perhaps the most important thing about The Defenders was that it was the best place to find a “mainstream” version of Steve Gerber’s incredible imagination. I recognize that his more esoteric works like Howard the Duck and Omega the Unknown aren’t for everyone, but in The Defenders he was able to merge bizarre, random concepts like Elf With A Gun with team-ups with The Avengers.
Click the links below to see panels from (just about)
every issue of Volume One of The Defenders. (The other volumes really aren’t worth reading.)